


too close to the sun

by mosaic_broken_hearts



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: A little bit anyway, Childhood Friends to Lovers, Greek AU, Homophobia, Implied Sexual Assault, M/M, THE CHARACTERS, They love each other, Violence, aaron loves planes, and jack being a modern day daedalus, but it's never explicitly referenced, but its nothing major or anything, death mention, definitely not the story, dw it's just sarah, i mean like barely implied at all, idk what this is tbh, ish, its a mush of lots of things, just a couple of mentions of aarons dad that make you think oh that happened in this canon too, ngl this is more based on bbc atlantis than the actual greek myth, not necessarily the story, robert loves the stars, there's vibes of robert being a modern day icarus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-16
Updated: 2017-08-16
Packaged: 2018-12-16 07:23:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11823921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mosaic_broken_hearts/pseuds/mosaic_broken_hearts
Summary: Aaron had always loved planes, dreamed of becoming a pilot, becoming the master of the sky. He would study planes day and night, buried himself in them when his mum left. Any type of plane, old or new, it didn't matter. By the time he was a teenager, he knew them all. His dad told him he'd never make it in the RAF, forbid him from joining, so he ran away. He ran as fast as he could as far as he could.Until he found a boy lying down in a field with his eyes closed, patches of wheat flattened in the shape of wings around him; the boy looked angelic.ORthe vaguely modern day icarus au nobody asked for





	too close to the sun

Robert had always been besotted with the sky, from a very young age. He would watch the stars and promise his dad, one day he would reach them, one day he would explore them all. As he grew up, his love of stars continued, but he also found an affinity with the sun. There was something so captivating about it, and Sarah always told him off, said he'd go blind if he kept looking right into it. He knew this, yet he found he couldn't look away.  
Aaron had always loved planes, dreamed of becoming a pilot, becoming the master of the sky. He would study planes day and night, buried himself in them when his mum left. Any type of plane, old or new, it didn't matter. By the time he was a teenager, he knew them all. His dad told him he'd never make it in the RAF, forbid him from joining, so he ran away. He ran as fast as he could as far as he could.  
Until he found a boy lying down in a field with his eyes closed, patches of wheat flattened in the shape of wings around him; the boy looked angelic.  
"He's dead", Aaron whispered; that could be the only explanation. Aaron shook him, prayed to a god that was meaningless to him that the boy would be alright.  
The boy jumped up, flashed a smile, and offered his hand.  
"Who are you then? My name's Robert, I was, er... I was watching the sun, I must've fallen asleep."  
He took Robert's hand rather reluctantly, unsure what to make of this eccentric boy who watched the sun.  
"Aaron."  
"You're not very talkative, are you? Come on, what are you doing out here then? I thought nobody knew it existed!"  
Aaron bit his lip. He wasn't supposed to talk to strangers, his dad always told him that. Something about this boy, though, was intriguing him, was making him want to talk.  
"I'm not... I'm nobody, this was an accident, I should be going."  
"Sit", Robert smiled, "watch the sun, it's a beautiful day".  
Aaron couldn't find it in himself to say no.  
  
Aaron returned home the next day, knowing he had nobody else to go to, nowhere else to live. He focused himself on the mechanics of planes; if he couldn't fly them, he could always fix them.  
That summer, he would visit the golden haired boy in the field every day often, once a week at first, then more and more, until he was visiting him in an almost daily basis.There was something about the forbidden nature of it all that drew Aaron in, sneaking off to spend an hour staring up at the sky and sharing stories with this mysterious stranger.  
Robert was 15, a year older than Aaron. His dreams of exploring the sky were much like his own, and he found himself being able to tell Robert anything and everything.  
When autumn came around, and they had to return to school, they made an unspoken promise to return to the field whenever they could.  
  
Autumn turned to winter and it became too cold to lie in the field.  
Robert took Aaron's hand, whispered in his ear to stay quiet, and whisked him off to an abandoned summer house near the side of the road.  
Aaron felt his heart racing at an unnatural speed the entire time they were holding hands, and it had nothing to do with getting caught in the house.  
  
"Do you ever think about it, about escaping real life, escaping family, running away, just the two of us?"  
Aaron lay on the pinewood floor, staring at the ceiling.  
"Yeah, yeah I do. I think about it all the time. Me and you, taking on the world, taking on the sky."  
He turned to Robert sadly.  
"It would never work. We'd be caught, and then what would we do? I'd never be able to see you again. I can't risk that. I can't risk you."  
Robert looked at Aaron in the same way he'd seen him so often gaze at the sky.  
"I can't risk you either. I... I think I'm falling in... nevermind."  
He turned away, cheeks flushed.  
Aaron took his hand, like Robert had done all those months ago when they first met.  
"I'll catch you, Robert, if you fall, I'll always catch you."  
He pressed a soft kiss to Robert's hand.  
Robert smiled and leaned in. He somehow knew from the moment he saw the shy boy with the buzz cut and the worry lines, that this was meant to happen.  
It was Aaron who made the final move, barely brushing Robert's lips, but it was enough, it was enough for both of them.  
Aaron had spent his entire life dreaming of flying, but this, he realised, this was flying, and he hadn't even left the ground.  
  
That was the problem with flying; in order to fly you must come back down to earth, more often than not with a rocky landing.  
This particular rocky landing was a middle-aged man in a cap, who tore Robert away, who yelled and told Aaron to leave and never to go near his son again.  
He could only watch helplessly as the man- Robert's father- hit his golden haired boy, over and over again, crying and whimpering for his dad to stop.  
It all became too much for him, and he ran, he ran once again through that field, he ran until he threw up and he didn't stop throwing up until there was nothing left in him.  
He didn't go home that night.  
  
Aaron did return to the summer house, every day for 3 months, despite what Robert's dad had told him. He even visited on his birthday, a cupcake lit on the floor beside their spot.  
Robert never turned up.  
Aaron couldn't blame him, really, if it had been his dad that had caught them... well he definitely wouldn't be seeing Robert again.  
If this was what falling felt like, spiralling downward with no way to slow down, nothing to catch you, well Aaron suddenly didn't much want to fly.  
  
Robert watched Aaron from afar. He watched him visit the summer house, he watched him wander through the field every day, at first with a spring in his step, slowly but surely becoming more deflated, to the point where it appeared to be almost a chore.  
On Aaron's birthday, he jumped down from his treetop vantage point, determined to see the boy, just this once, but Jack's voice echoed through the forest and Robert left before he had the chance, picking up the bag of apples he was supposed to be collecting, a single tear falling from his eyes.  
  
For the next few years, Robert worked hard at his father's workshop. Jack knew what was right for him, Robert maintained, and pushed thoughts of the boy with the buzz cut to the back of his mind. He became very accomplished at woodwork, Jack giving him a full time job before he was 20.  
Robert would work nights from time to time, and it was on these occasions that his thoughts wandered to the stars, and to flying, to what him and Aaron had talked about on those endless summer days. He began a project in secret, one which would take many months if not years of work. He was to make his own wings, ones he could wear and would allow him to finally escape the stronghold of his father and of reality.  
It was a daydream, childish nonsense, his father would've said if he found his blueprints. Jack berated Robert enough for still having the telescope his mother had bought him for his 12th birthday, just a few years before she died.  
Sarah's death had come not long before he met Aaron, and it was on one day when he needed to escape that he came across the field. He lay there and cried, let the sadness and grief overwhelm him until there was nothing left to him.  
The field, despite being the place where his mum's death had truly hit him for the first time, gave him a sense of home; he could feel his mum in the air, all around him, wrapping him in a blanket and telling him he was safe.  
After Aaron, his safety blanket was gone, his mum with it too. The field was like a stranger to him, and only made him feel vulnerable and exposed.  
  
Robert returned to the summer house in the winter before he turned 21, the flashbacks to the beating he'd pushed to the back of his mind mostly faded.  
This was where he would keep his plans, his descriptions of the wings, his completion dates, everything to do with the wings, for he knew his father would never return to the place where he found his son... engaging in a lifestyle he didn't approve of. If he didn't come back, he could pretend it had never happened, that it was just a bad dream.  
If only Robert was so lucky.  
  
It was the day after his 22nd birthday that he finally completed the wings, was sure they had the aerodynamics to fly, the strength to hold him up, and various other technical requirements.  
He decided to return to the field that was once the closest place to home to try it out. It was there, with Aaron, that the first seeds were planted in his brain, so it only made sense that it was here it would get its grand unveiling, its chance to shine.  
  
Robert took a deep breath as he put his wings on. This was it. 3 years of hard work, 7 years dreaming of this day, and finally it would pay off. He was confident; Jack called it arrogance but Robert had got it from his dad so frankly he hadn't the right to say anything on the matter.  
He whispered a countdown,  
"10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2-"  
As he took a deep breath in, he felt a hand touch his shoulder. He froze, the realisation hitting him that his dad had followed him, that he would lose his job, that he would be a disappointment to his dad once more, for wasting all his time on foolish dreams and for slacking off.  
It wasn't his dad.  
As Robert turned around, he heard a familiar chuckle.  
"I know I said I'll always catch you when you fall, but you didn't need to try and get yourself killed to prove it."  
Robert broke out in a smile. It was his boy with the buzz cut, tall and definitely not with a buzz cut anymore. Aaron looked amazing, even better than he had the last time he had seen him.  
"Well, aren't you gonna give me a hug, or-"  
Aaron was cut off as Robert wrapped himself around Aaron, holding on as if he was the only oxygen in the world, as if to let go would mean certain death. Perhaps, Robert thought, it would be.  
"Wings! Sharp wings!"  
Aaron yelled and wriggled uncomfortably in Robert's arms, forcing Robert to let go, albeit temporarily. There was no way Robert was letting Aaron get away again.  
He threw his wings to the ground, three years of hard work abandoned in the blink of an eye. It didn't really matter, not to Robert. Why would he want a piece of wood and metal called Aaron when he could have the real thing?  
Robert placed a kiss to Aaron's lips, desperate and filled with 7 years of longing, of pining, of love that never faded, not even when he pushed it to the back of his mind.  
This, this was flying. He didn't need wings to fly, not when he had Aaron.  
  
One day Aaron would become a flight mechanic, and Robert would visit NASA, but neither of them would reach the stars. That was okay, though, because they had each other, and that was enough.


End file.
